From their early days in 1965 when the order of the day was to drive the insurgent Viet Cong from the villages around Da Nang to the final, dramatic evacuation of Saigon ten years later, Semper Fi—Vietnam relates the whole gutsy, glorious saga of the Marines in Vietnam in stark, riveting detail. Acclimating to their strange new surroundings occupied the Marines’ first few weeks in South Vietnam. . . . Throughout the day, peasants dressed in pajama-like clothing and sporting conical hats worked the paddies behind the heaving water buffalo. . . . If daytime scenes appeared bucolic, the arrival of sunset quickly changed that perception. Gunfire and explosions erupted at dusk. Marines nervously watched bright tracers cut colorful swaths across the night sky. From distant bamboo thickets, mortar shells flew skyward to crash in the paddies. The Marines were learning that the war in South Vietnam was unlike anything for which they’d been trained.

SEMPER FI gives a portrait of a young man and his experiences as an enlisted member of the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Orville Clubb begins at the beginning with his earliest memories and tells the story right through to his discharge after serving overseas. Born into a poor family brought together by World War II, the writer grew to maturity as a young Marine. As with many young men of this era of similar socioeconomic status, joining the military as an enlisted man was an attractive option that offered a new start of life. "This is the story of an American who came from a humble background, who had a great love for his country and who put his life on the line for it. The book explains how the Marine Corps transformed his attitude, self confidence, and personality. It gave him the inspiration to become a successful person and PhD, a degree that is attained by fewer than three per cent of the American population. If you have no military background this book will inspire you, if you have a military background it will bring back memories of your own service, if you are a Marine, 'Semper Fi '." -- Alan J. Zygowicz, Major USMC, Special Agent in Charge, Hong Kong Office, U.S. Secret Service 1996-1999.

The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Brotherhood of War saga brings to life the men of the Marine Corps in the first Novel of the Corps. From Shanghai to Wake Island, the Corps was America’s first line of defense as the winds of war exploded into the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, this elite group of courageous, honorable men steel themselves for battle, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice...

Follow a group of young men as they go through Marine Corps boot camp in 1962, at Parris Island, South Carolina, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October of that year, 1962, and then on to their duty stations and, for some, Vietnam. If you want to know what the Marine Corps was really like in the 1960's and those that served during this tumultuous time in history this is the book for you!